We're home!

Just a quicky to say that we're back home and the flight was fine, no hitches, but the wait in Houston was the suck. Back to work today but I doubt it will be a full day! We both slept well so that should help.

The fridge is bare so I really need to address that tonight, and we have more washing than you can poke at stick at. However we are full of wonderful memories. Hoping we can make it back to England soon. Updates to follow as soon as we find our feet.

The wind up

Well it is our last day in Pavenham and we have had just the most wonderful time. Christmas was brilliant, really chilled out and so good to be with family. We took it easy in the morning then went to church with our adopted grandma, then Jo chatted to her folks in Australia while we sat around the tree opening presents. Lunch was a group effort (although Ruthie did the bulk of the hard work) and we ate at around 2. The food was brilliant, with a locally sourced turkey (slow cooked), pigs in blankets, three kinds of stuffing including a really old recipe for bread and onion stuffing, spuds, sweet potato, sprouts and bread sauce. I made the gravy but it wasn't tops because I didn't reduce it enough, but no dramas. We had grand plans for sweets but we were all so full that most of us opted to nap instead!

Today we've had more family to visit, another of Jo's aunt and uncles and another cousin, and we've all been hanging out and eating and going for brisk walks in the cold! Tonight we're heading to Elmswell (near Bury St Edmund's), our final destination for the trip really. We probably won't have the internets again until we get back to San Antonio on Monday night, so look out for some decent updates and pics after that. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and sorry we couldn't really call or txt.
I promise I'll explain this picture later ;)

Christmas eve and some pics

Well it is Christmas eve here in Pavenham and the boys are outside playing football (soccer), grandma is in the lounge reading the paper and Jo, Tim, Ruth and Bridget are in the kitchen talking and cooking and listening to carols. I'm at the laptop blogging with a mug of mulled wine... perfect!

Yesterday we caught the train to London and had a wonderful day touring and shopping and such. We went to St Paul's Cathedral, Covent Garden (which I loved) and a lot of other monopoly board places full of shops and people and wonderful buildings. We caught the tube several times and it was surprisingly uncrowded... well it was crowded but not too badly. Ruth's friend Katie was our fabulous tour guide and she did a great job while we school of fished behind her (luckily she's a tall lass). In the evening we went to a little Italian restaurant for dinner, then across to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to see Wicked! It took a while to get going but it was a wonderful show, and yes I even cried at the end.

Today we had a wonderfully restful day, we slept in until 11! (we didn't get home until after midnight and Jo and I both have filthy colds so go easy on us) We just had an invigorating walk along the river and down the back of all the cottage gardens and I managed not to fall down once!

And now, some random photos!

Covent Garden from the opera house

The interior of the St Pancras station (we could have caught a train to Paris!)

Is the Doctor in?

A Manchester canal

St Paul's

Heron House

We're having a great time here in UK Tour 08. Had a fab time with the Richardson side of the rellies. We toured Greater Manchester with Jo's Aunt and Uncle, including lots of great industrial history and canal tours and such (I love a good bit of industry). I liked Manchester much more than I expected, especially considering how cold and wet it was! Then Saturday night the cousins came to join us and we had an early Christmas dinner with all the trimmings including chestnut stuffing and apple cider jelly.

Sunday we headed up to Leeds with Jo's cousin Andrea and her chosen other half Ronnie (great lad). They took us to a fabulous outdoor German Christmas market for shopping and sausages and potato pancakes, wonderful in the cold! We spent a lovely day and a bit with them, then this afternoon they got us on the train to Bedford via London. I'm so glad we chose 'rail tour 08' over hiring a car, oh boy. We were both able to enjoy looking out the window and checking out the gorgeous countryside, so wet and green and non-texas like! The only downside was sharing the carriage with a group of obnoxious drunk folk. We had to change trains at St Pancras and while staring at the board waiting for our platform number to show and handsome pixie-like fellow came over to us and said "Hello, I'm your uncle Tim" and he was! He had cleverly arranged to be on the same train so we traveled the rest of the way chatting to Tim, brilliant!

Arrived in Bedford at around 5pm (in the dark of course) and met Ruthie. it's hard to explain how good it is to meet people who you have been looking forward to meeting for so long and feel like you already know, and there were no letdowns (except maybe on their part but we'll see, I have time to charm them yet)

So now we are at Heron House, hanging out with all the family like this is something we've been doing for years. Heading to London tomorrow for shopping, sightseeing, dinner and a show! More news soon.

[Had to edit this for horrendous spelling errors!!]

Safe arrival

We have arrived, safe, warm and with bags. The flights were great and we even scored the whole row on the long flight, plus a strong tail wind meant the 9 hour flight was more like 7.5! Just outside of Manchester now with rellies on Jo's dad's side. Sightseeing tomorrow plus an early Christmas dinner, conplete with chestnut stuffing, yay!

More comprehensive update soon.

We're going to ENGLAND!

We're on our way! The usual last minute dramas (like me having an article due to the publisher...) but all is good. We managed to pack super light! Who says girls can't travel light :D

Anyhow, I'll try to post a few updates on the way and keep an eye out for some epic posts and pics when we return. We have phones on us but with international roaming please save calls for emergencies. We should be checking email fairly often though! Yay!!

Happy Christmas y'all.

 

Christmas is in the air...bbrrrrrrr!

I'm starting to feel like we're living in the middle of some governmental weather test site! Yesterday it was pushing 90 (30C) and today it's a degree or two above freezing!! However, the cold weather is helping us get prepared for Thursday, when Jo and I grab our swag and head to chilly England for Christmas! We're really looking forward to it, even if it is the coldest start to a winter they've had for a while (30 years apparently...just our luck). I'll finally get a chance to meet a whole lot of Jo's relatives (and they me, scary prospect), from both sides of her family, which will be fantastic :D

Aside from the rellies, I'm really looking forward to some good cheese! Sharp and crumbly cheeses are almost non existent here, and most of the blues are French and creamy (which isn't bad, but give me a good Stilton and I am putty in your hands) Other than my hope of cheese I have no expectations, I'm just looking forward to letting this trip unfold as it may, and enjoying every second of it! I know winter isn't the best time of year but I'm sure we'll be back, plus the idea of Christmas with family was too much to resist.

It has been a fairly full week or so leading up to leaving. We've been house-sitting/cat-sitting again, which has been great in terms of having a washing machine (yep, we still don't have one) but a bit tricky flitting between two houses. We've also had Christmas parties a gogo, including a fabulous Norwegian/Swedish celebration with lots of baking and glögg (similar to gluvine), a decoration swap with the girls and the big work Christmas party with lots of good food and dancing contests.


Somewhere between all that and the packing we managed to get our packages out to Oz, a new record this year I think! We also got so disgustingly far behind in sending out our Christmas cards that they might just arrive in time for the next one. But we did manage to get our tree (twig) up and adorned.

More conference sketches

I just scanned some more recent conference sketches. It's a shame that the only time I really get to draw now is when I'm at these things listening to people talk. I feel like I'm losing the knack. Anyway, I have a couple of projects planned that might get some of the discipline back, we'll see!


Who is the crazy person who decides to start conference sessions at 7.30am??

Morel and porcini mushroom pasta

I realise I promised I'd start putting recipes on here rather than just waffling on about food in general and I totally forgot.

Lorena furnished us with a couple of packets of very good looking dried morels, so I promised to cook her some pasta. I rehydrated them in water and a touch of soy in the fridge for a day, then kept the soaking liquid and gave the mushrooms a really good wash (morels tend to be on the gritty side because of that puckering on the outside)

I also had half a pack of porcini mushrooms in the freezer, maybe 8 caps and stems, so I decided to chop them up fairly finely to make sure the dish had plenty of that divine, rich mushroom flavour that will always remind me of Rome.

The big ones are the porcini, the little wrinkled ones are the morels and the greenery is fresh tarragon from our tiny deck garden!

Recipe as follows:
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Half a cup of mushroom soaking liquid, finely strained
Half a cup of white wine (or vegie stock)
Half a cup of cream
Salt and pepper to season as required
Finely chopped tarragon and Italian parsley to garnish

Sweat the garlic and a little salt in the olive oil for a minute (before the garlic browns). Add the soaking liquid and the wine and let it reduce by half. Add the cream and mushrooms, stirring well to prevent curdling. Add pepper to taste and allow to simmer until the cream starts to thicken. Toss in some pasta and the fresh herbs, stirring well to coat the pasta, then serve! Enjoy :D

Deep in the Heart of a Texan part 2

Ok, a update on Tom. Like I said, he's one tough bugger. Tom is home (as of Saturday would you believe) and now he just has to rest and contemplate :D

It seems amazing to me how far they have come with bypass surgery, and that you can have your ribs cracked open, your legs stripped of veins and your heart manhandled and be home within days. Or maybe that's just Tom, remember what I said about high achieving. Anyway, keep up the happy thoughts and thanks to everyone who sent best wishes.

Deep in the Heart of a Texan

My dear friend Tom had six bypass surgery on his heart the other day, yeah six! I don't even know what that's called and I didn't know there could be so many things to bypass but he sure is a high achiever so why not this time too. Anyway, he is doing well and if he scares me like that again it might be me he wants to bypass...

So please, if you have any spare thoughts or prayers, swing them his way. Lord knows he could use them regardless...

The prairie sky is wide and high...

...deep in the heart of Texas.

Random shot of twilight from work.